Dealing with infertility can be tremendously challenging. Luckily medicine and alternative methods have far advanced and there are many treatment options you can look into. In this blog we try to touch on as many subjects possible to help you better understand infertility and evaluate all options that are out there.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Comparing Fertility Clinics

Receiving the news that you, your partner, or both of you are suffering from conception difficulties can be a trying experience. Most people take the ability to facilitate a healthy pregnancy for granted so when that ability is absent in them most couples become understandably distraught. Luckily for them we live in a day in age where fertility medicine and science is at a level that has never been reached before.
Fertility clinics are a big reason why many of these hopeless, distraught couples end up battling through their trouble and end up giving birth to a healthy child or children. With the advances in science and medicine that we witness today, fertility clinics are becoming more readily available while at the same time offering care that is improving on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis. But before you seek the services of a particular fertility clinic it is imperative that you do a little shopping around. Pick a handful of fertility clinics that you deem appropriate and review them based on things like past customer reviews, treatments offered, and the experience of the clinic’s staff. If you cover all your bases and do the appropriate amount of research before jumping into it, your fertility treatment experience will not only be pleasant, it will be fruitful as well.

Clinics and Insurance

For many couples one of the main aspects of a fertility clinic that they weigh in on most is how well the clinic is able to interact with your insurance provider. You see, in the past nearly every insurance provider and plan denied customers who were seeking treatments because they did not see fertility treatments as being necessary to be covered in insurance plans. While that practice is slowly changing (both by choice and governmental force in some regions), many insurance companies still do not cover a majority of treatments and services offered by fertility clinics.

By shopping around and making in depth comparisons of fertility clinics you can find out which clinic will not only offer you the best service, but offer you that service at an affordable price with maximum insurance coverage. Before jumping into any fertility treatments it would also be wise to have a conversation with your insurance provider simply to see and understand where you fall as far as treatment coverage goes.

In the past there have been horror story after horror story of couples who failed to do their research and end their fertility treatment process with a bill that they could not even come close to being able to afford.

Clinics and Surgery

A fact that gets lost amongst many couples looking for a fertility clinic to utilize is that every clinic is not the same at all. For some reason the popular belief is that each and every fertility clinic is a cookie cutter mold of the last, but in reality nothing could be further from the truth.

Just like one sporting goods store is not exactly like another, fertility clinics too differ from town to town, state to state, and country to country. The differences you may experience could be anything from a clinic that caters specifically to one gender or a clinic that only specializes in certain treatments. Regardless of a clinic’s specification, it is going to take some research and shopping around to determine which fertility clinic will fit your individual needs.

The surgeries and treatments offered at fertility clinics vary depending on gender, so if you are a woman who is seeking an IVF treatment, going to a fertility clinic that specializes in vasectomy reversal or other male fertility procedures would not make much sense. Little things like learning the surgical background of a clinic can be immensely helpful when deciding upon which fertility clinic that you should use. Check if clinics offer sperm and egg donation as well, it will be an indicator of how far their expertise reaches.

Clinic Experience, Lifetime

Whenever you are watching sports or any other type of competition, analysts and experts consistently comment on the importance of experience. The athletes that have been in the Olympics once or twice before will not suffer from the same pregame jitters and nervousness as the athlete who is making their Olympic debut and because of that many would give the competitive edge to the seasoned Olympic veteran.

Fertility clinics work in much the same fashion; the longer a clinic has been practicing, the more experience it has and the more likely it is that they will offer you the utmost quality of care. While this is the case a lot of the time, it is important to remember that just because one clinic has been operating longer than another does not automatically make that clinic “better.” A newer clinic can offer the same great service as longstanding clinics but it would be wise to put newer clinics under heavier scrutiny simply because longevity means a lot in this industry.
Another great thing about clinics that have been around for a long time is that they will have years and years of records that you can refer to. What I mean by this is that you can see the historic success rates of a particular treatment at this clinic over the course of the clinic’s existence. Choosing clinics with consistently higher rates of success is an obvious choice every time.